Top scholars leave their marks on Newark schools

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerEast Side High School valedictorian Stephanie Garcia on Wednesday, June, 02, 2010 in Newark. Her mural is seen in the background.

Prom has passed and finals have ended, which leaves one final event for Newark high school seniors – graduation. And while this will be the last day they walk on campus as students, a few select graduates will leave their names behind because they will graduate with a title that no other classmate can share – valedictorian.

“I love being able to say that I’m number one,” said Stephanie Garcia, East Side High School valedictorian.

This is something that each valedictorian can boast about, but each has his or her own unique story. There’s Stephanie, who turned down one of Newark’s most reputable high schools to make a difference in her neighborhood, another student at American History High School who was always first, and will now forever be the first to graduate with top honors in her school’s history, and the student at Weequahic, who is the only male valedictorian out of all Newark public schools this year.

Stephanie always had the top honor in her sight, especially because she was expecting to get it her eighth-grade year, when she didn’t even earn salutatorian. But when she reached high school, Stephanie upped her goal. She not only wanted to finish first, but she wanted to represent her hometown high school.

“Originally, I was going to go to Science Park, but I decided that I didn’t want to judge East Side,” Stephanie said. “I wanted to make a difference.”

Over the years, East Side High School has acquired a reputation for antics, instead of academics. When Stephanie informed her friends of her choice to attend East Side, she said they were afraid she would end up in a locker.

“I like to call our school tours the tour of the pleasantly surprised,” East Side Principal Mario Santos said about his school’s reputation. “I remember two students from Lafayette asking me if students get stuffed in lockers. Have you seen the size of our lockers?”

On a more serious note, Santos said East Side is transforming. In the last five years alone, they have added eight advanced placement classes to its curriculum.

“People say East Side doesn’t offer those classes, but they are there for those who want it,” Stephanie said.

And Stephanie wanted it. But among her different advanced placement and honors courses, she settled most comfortably in the film department. So much so that she would come to school on the weekends and would stay during the week until someone kicked her out of the room.

“Stephanie’s sister was here first,” said Andrew Teheran, East Side film teacher. “Stephanie rolled in on parent-teacher night and I knew she was committed then. She’s one of my five all-time favorite students, and I don’t
know what we are going to do without her.”

When she’s not working on a film project, Stephanie could be doing something for soccer, track, the math Olympics, National Honor Society or the school mural that she is painting on one of the walls. Stephanie said she gets everything done by simply finding the time to do it. Then again, this valedictorian also said she loves homework and asked her AP Calculus teacher to fail her so she didn’t have to leave East Side. She had no luck with that last request. Stephanie will leave East Side with a 4.5 grade point average and head to the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Unlike Stephanie, Weequahic High School’s valedictorian, Kareem Gifford, never thought about being his school’s valedictorian. In fact, he was surprised to find out his sophomore year that he was number one in his class ranking.

“I thought there were other people ahead of me,” Kareem said. “And when I found out, I still wanted to see how long I would remain number one.”

John Munson/The Star-LedgerKareem Gifford, valedictorian at Weequahic is the only male throughout all Newark public high schools to receive this honor this year.

And the answer, through graduation.
Kareem’s goal may not have been to obtain the highest grade point average in his class, but it was always to perform well in school. Even when his friends didn’t share his same academic drive, Kareem always made sure to keep up with his work – he didn’t want to let down his family or himself.

“I feel a need to make my mother happy and my aunt and uncle always encouraged me to do well,” Kareem said. “And I always did well in school so I would think, why give up now?”

This was the mentality that helped Kareem make it through his three advanced placement courses this year. He admits that there were times that he wanted to quit, but that only made him more focused.

“Class came first,” he added. “I had to make sure to maintain my grades, my academics.”

Kareem’s other activities include president of the Omega Phi Epsilon, vice president of his class, the only senior male in Weequahic’s National Honor Society and senior class advisor. He also balanced working at Beth Israel Hospital.

This fall, Kareem will study Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University. After receiving seven college acceptance letters, he decided to stay close to home, saying leaving New Jersey didn’t feel right. As far as earning the valedictorian honor, Kareem might have not expected it, but it is something that he is proud about.

“It means a lot to me because there aren’t a lot of African-American males from Weequahic who are valedictorians,” he said.

While Kareem never thought about finishing at the top of his class, American History High School valedictorian, Margaret Frimpong, was expected to do nothing less. Born in Ghana, Margaret moved to the U.S. midway through her eighth-grade year. In Ghana, she was always first in her class and her father expected it to remain that way.

“Every time I take my report card home, my dad expects A’s,” Margaret said. “If I got a B, I had to come up with an explanation.”

Although Margaret doesn’t think a B always requires an explanation, she admits that her father motivates her. He was the first to move to the United States and then worked two jobs to bring his family over from Ghana.

“When we got here it was a victory,” Margaret said. “I knew my dad was working hard to get us over here. He wanted us to have a better life and encouraged us to get an education, so I always worked hard in school.”

Margaret did well in Ghana because she went to a private school. But moving to a country where every student around her age seems to carry the internet in their pockets because of smart phone technology, Margaret found herself in an interesting transition.

“Everything was new to me during my eighth-grade year,” she said. “In Ghana, these resources weren’t available. I didn’t know how to work a computer.”

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerMargaret Frimpong of American History High School is part of the school's first graduating class, therefore, the first valedictorian.

And then Margaret would enter her freshman year in high school with another uphill battle, her reading comprehension.

Robert Gregory, principal at American History High School, said Margaret’s freshman year test showed that her reading comprehension was not proficient.

But she only lived in that bracket for a short time, he added.

“Because of her work ethic, she changed that right away,” Gregory said. “In fact, her first advanced placement class was AP Literature.”

Since then, she enrolled in classes and after-school programs, such as the REACH program at Rutgers University, where she earned nine college credits that she will bring into her freshman year at Rutgers University.

Margaret also keeps busy outside of the classroom with drama, music (singing for her school and church choirs) and the National Honor Society. In fact, she even left a legacy in the latter association by creating a program where members adopted ninth-graders in order to mentor and guide them – maybe even groom a future valedictorian.

Gregory, who said he holds Margaret “near and dear” to his heart because his father was her first principal, said that he couldn’t imagine a better first valedictorian than Margaret.

“I was proud to inherit her and watch her become our first valedictorian,” Gregory said.

But as Margaret, Stephanie and Kareem celebrate their achievements, they still know they have a lot of work ahead of them.